Love affair between books and controversies

There is perhaps no fate worse for a book than when it is ignored. If it is savaged by critics, some may even argue it is precisely the adrenaline it needs to thrive in the market. But when it is truly and sensationally controversial, well, the author’s dream will appear fulfilled. Ultimately, however, whether controversial or at first ignored, it is always difficult to tell how a book would fare in the market in the long run. For there is usually no proof the long run would not come well after the demise of the author. It may be too early to tell what will become of the new Chinua Achebe book, There Was A Country, but at least for now, no matter how bilious some literary critics think its content is, the controversial book will not be ignored. In Nigeria itself, it has raised a storm, with real and imitation critics polarised essentially along ethnic lines. But polarisation notwithstanding, both classes of critics will certainly not ignore the book, and to that extent, it is likely to receive some moderate to good amount of commercial attention.

Except where an author sets out deliberately to be a woeful failure, the first principle to publishing success is for the author to shock the public with either too much logic and fair amount of truth or too little logic and outright fatuousness. The jury is still out on the Achebe book. But connoisseurs of great literature will recall instances of controversial books that became popular, thereby establishing the link between controversy and popularity. Take John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, a social commentary on the economic plight of poor farmers in the United States in the 1930s, for instance. The Times of London had this to say of the book published in 1939: “It is one of the most arresting [novels] of its time.” Newsweek magazine described it as a “mess of silly propaganda, superficial observation, careless infidelity to the proper use of idiom, tasteless pornographic and scatological talk.” On the other hand, a New York Times reviewer suggested that “Steinbeck has written a novel from the depths of his heart with a sincerity seldom equalled. It may be an exaggeration, but it is the exaggeration of an honest and splendid writer.” But the Associated Farmers of California, displeased with the book’s depiction of California farmers, denounced it mercilessly as a “pack of lies…and communist propaganda.”

The result was that in some places the book was burnt, and it even led to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) putting surveillance on Steinbeck who was considered a communist agent on account of the book. The Grapes of Wrath later won the Pulitzer Prize, sold 4.5 million in the US alone, and about 14 million worldwide. Consider also D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and Sons and Lovers, two novels either censored or banned because of their explicit sexual content. And who could ignore James Joyce’s Ulysses that drove many into fury because of its egregious reference to masturbation? It suffered an obscenity prosecution, was banned in some places, and was for a long time not even available in Ireland, where Joyce hailed from.

Achebe’s latest work is unlikely to witness more than the controversy that has greeted it so far. There will be no burning, banning or censoring. But for him, it will be a controversy that warms the cockles of the heart. There are millions of books either ignored or completely forgotten today. Whether There Was A Country will be forgotten on a distant tomorrow cannot now be determined, especially considering its contribution to Nigeria’s civil war literature. In view of the fame of the author, even if the book’s accuracy is repeatedly and brutally called to question, as it is now, it is certain there will always be references made to it now and in the distant future. Achebe’s name guarantees that; as he becomes the latest quintessential example of the troubling love affair between books and controversies.

2 thoughts on “Love affair between books and controversies”

I disagree with the premise of your argument. No writer wants to be ignored, but the author in question, Chinua Achebe, is one of the world’s best-known writers. Why would he, at 81, seek publicity, heedless of whether it comes as notoriety or fame? _There Was a Country_ has sparked off a conversation we should have had a long time ago – you do us no favours by choosing to leave the substance (the issues dealt with in the book) and chase the shadow (how books become controversial). Today’s “Hardball” is a contradiction in terms!